Train trip and now @ Houston, alhamulillah

Salaam Alaikum Waraahmatullah

Alhamdulillah, we are now in Houston having enjoyed and benefitted much more at Ilm Summit 2010.

We started on Tuesday 10 pm PST from our home and reached here on Friday morning alhamdulillah. The train trip was long obviously, but not as boring or uneventful as expected. Alhamdulillah the kids kept us busy.

We have been reflecting more deeply on "IN SHA ALLAH" and that Indeed He is the best of planners. On Wednesday, 45 mins before we boarded the train, I told my daughter, "Yaay, insha Allah, we are going to get on the train soon." She asks, "Why do you haveto say 'insha Allah' now? We are here already and just in minutes, we are going to be on the train." (My daughter is 3 and a half, and just so that you get a more visual picture, she has been waiting now for over a month for this train trip, as we have been planning to the best of our ability for many months.) Anyway, I told her that we still haave to remmeber that anything will happen only if Allah wills.
As we checked in our baggage, the officer for the reason of not having a proper ID with me, denied me a boarding pass subhana Allah and cancelled my ticket.

We gave up trying not to get upset and making dua' for the khair. My daughter made a lot of dua' too. Like an answer to our dua', the lady at the information desk approached us (Subhana Allah, Allah put that thought into her heart to come and help us out; she got out of her glass cube and came to us). Alhamdulillah, she was in control of the Texas Eagle administration (may Allah guide her to Islam) and here, we are by the Mercy of Allah. In the end, i can only think of good that came out of this small predicament or problem if I may call it so. my daughter understood why and how it is so appropriate to say Insha Allah even if you are going to do something the very next minute. And also, it gave us a chance to sincerely beg for forgiveness and ask Allah for help, renewing our intentions for coming here...so on and so forth.

SubhanAllah, my second obstacle was our babysitter cancelled on us. Till last afternoon, I thought I wouldn't be able to attend classes, or we would have to take turns. Again, it made me reflect. After the hassle at the train station, you would think "ok, so now you are already at the place of the event. Unless you fall sick or Allah wishes to take your soul, you will attend". Not not having a babysitter though. Once again, Allah Azza wajal made it easy for all of us. For now, we found a babysitter. Let's wait and see what was in store for us insha Allah.

I missed few sessions yesterday but alhamdulillah I was able to attend since the babysitter arrived. May Allah bless her and reward her immensely.

The Friday "opening/ welcome session" was amazing. Just uplifted us to a whole new level of spirutiality and prepared our minds for the academia that we will be exposed to. Also humbled us greatly....for many facts, one of them being that here, we all were travelling students of knowledge who made efforts and spend our money to come here. But what we did is nothing compared to the likes of Imam Bukhari, Shafi', Malik and others (Rahimahum Allahu ta'ala). The likes of Jabir bin Abdullah radiya Allahu anh who travelled to hear one hadeeth- just one- and the probability is high that perhaps he had already heard it from the others (with longer chain of narrators and so he wanted to hear directly from the one who had heard it from the Prophet Salla Allahu alaihi wasallam). How much did they value knowledge and how much do we?

And the likes of Abu Ayyub Al-Ansari who travelled from Medina to Egypt for one hadeeth (the hadeeth of concealing your brother's fault in this world) when traveling in those days is not like our times. How much do you think he would have valued that hadeeth? That would naturally lead it to committed implementation. Today we do not value ahadeeth as it should be, otherwise we would hasten to implement it with much sincerity and conviction.

Insha Allah, I will post some gems soon. Got to run to class......